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by RedEris



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 17:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4928215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedEris/pseuds/RedEris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisition and the Companions respond to the war orphans in their midst.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> Written for a request for happy headcanons from a friend on Tumblr.

War creates orphans and strays–it’s heartbreaking, but inevitable. But war keeps everyone busy, as well, and the leaders of the Inquisition are none of them accustomed to thinking about children. At first, only the cooks notice–they see the hungry looks, the loitering hopefuls outside the kitchen, and they slip the little urchins what food they can spare. But Sera–who often raids the kitchen–notices next. She yells about it over ale to Blackwall, and Blackwall–hesitantly, deferentially–brings the problem to the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor brings it to the Advisors, and everyone begins looking for resources. 

First, of course, is housing and regular meals. There are always fewer resources than everyone would like, but everyone gives up a little more to make sure the children are cared for. Sera recruits some of the older children, and they help her round the others up. Some of the children hold out, hiding in corners, afraid to trust again, but eventually everyone has a bed.

The whole business attracts attention. The mages hear about it in their new tower, and some of them remember the days when they used to teach the magelings with wistful fondness. For better or worse, everyone in the Circles gets an education, and it grates to think of these urchins running wild and ignorant. Classes are begun. Some of the former templars find the idea of mages forming the minds of young children abhorrent, but when they bring the issue to the Inquisitor they are told in no uncertain terms that if they want to help then they can bloody well teach too, but they will not interfere with the mages. After much internal debate, that’s exactly what they do–they teach too. And when the mage children join the classes, they look around, find little support for their objections, and ultimately continue teaching.

Blackwall carves toys for the younger children. Some of the older children pick up the habit of watching him, and soon enough they’ve bandaged fingers and blistered thumbs but they’re learning too. Krem makes stuffed nugs in his spare time to comfort tearful nights. Bull is a particular favorite because he lets the children climb on him and beat him, and what child doesn’t love that? Dorian needs to be persuaded at first, but sometimes he can be nagged into spinning gossamer little visions to distract the children in that fretful hour before dinner. None of the children remember Cole, but lost things are found, lost names remembered, and no one really knows how it happens so often. Varric reading bedtime stories, when it happens, is widely considered an enormous treat.

Inquisition troops begin bringing more children back as they find them. Word spreads that war orphans can find safe haven in Skyhold. It is difficult, sometimes, to find space for them all, pillows for all the heads, foods for hollow stomachs, but Josephine knows a PR opportunity when she sees one, and donations begin to flow. 

Maybe, maybe…Maybe someday, years after the wars are over and the sky healed, the school remains. Maybe some of the original children are now the teachers, the caretakers, the loving figures that hold a crying child in the night. Maybe this school is a place gaining a reputation all over Thedas, where mage children and non-mage children alike can get an education, find a family, make a home.


End file.
